Lawsuit should fail
Bid to block bridge toll discounts is unfair to Grand Islanders
We’ve reached a new low in pettiness. Two drivers—at least, we presume they’re drivers—are suing the New York State Thruway Authority to whine about the toll discount given to residents of Grand Island. Boo hoo.
It gets worse, because the two plaintiffs aren’t even local. One is from Ontario and the other is from Long Island. The maddened motorists are steaming because residents of Grand Island pay just 9 cents to cross the Grand Island bridges while the non-discounted rate is $1. It’s just not fair.
The lawsuit actually was filed three years ago before being dismissed in federal court in the Albany area in January 2007. But now an appeals court has revived the lawsuit, overturning the lower court’s ruling.
The ridiculous thrust of the case is that it is unconstitutional to offer preferential rates to motorists based on where they live. Discounted tolls are fine, the suit claims, as long as they’re not based on geography. The plaintiffs want compensation for drivers who have paid higher tolls because they weren’t lucky enough to live on Grand Island.
What the plaintiffs and the appeals court fail to recognize is that life is full of little unfairnesses. If it is unfair for residents of Grand Island to pay less than other people, it would be unfairer still to dun them for even more money when the Thruway Authority has them penned in.
Anyone else can avoid the tolls by taking a different route, but unless Grand Island residents travel by boat, they have no choice if they want to leave the island. They have to use the bridges. It could be unconscionable, if not unconstitutional, not to give them a lower rate than anyone else.
In truth, we’d like to see the bridge tolls eliminated. They are a nuisance, often causing backups and precipitating accidents. If the plaintiffs wanted to do something useful, they could have sued to have the tolls, themselves, declared unconstitutional, for whatever reason a court might buy.
Meantime, we should all hope this lawsuit falls on its face. It wasn’t worth filing and it isn’t worth pursuing. It’s an abuse not only of process but of people who have no choice but paying whatever toll the Thruway Authority imposes. Even at just 9 cents a crossing, that’s punishment enough.
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